Wednesday, July 5, 2017

Kit Siang: For Hadi, accepting Saudi money not foreign intervention

The PAS leader had decried foreign intervention over the US Department of Justice's lawsuit to seize assets bought using funds purportedly stolen from 1MDB and yesterday reiterated that inviting foreign intervention into domestic affairs will lead to trouble.

Lim is, however, of the opinion that Hadi's argument on foreign intervention was "odd and bizarre".

The Gelang Patah MP said Hadi would have hit out at Pakatan Harapan if the United States government or any of its agencies had donated and deposited RM2.6 billion into the private accounts of any Pakatan Harapan leader and claimed that this was proof of unacceptable foreign intervention undermining national sovereignty.

"But why is Hadi so mute when (prime minister) Najib (Abdul Razak) claimed that the RM2.6 billion in his personal bank accounts in Ambank was a donation from the Saudi royalty for the 13th general election?

"Why should it be wrong and grave foreign intervention to undermine Malaysia’s national sovereignty if the donation had been from US sources but acceptable and enhancement of national sovereignty when they were from Saudi sources?

"Why has Hadi got double standards in his interpretation of 'foreign interference - that it is wrong if (it is) from Western countries but acceptable if from Saudi Arabia?"

Stressing that the DAP does not support any foreign intervention into Malaysia’s domestic affairs, whether from the United States or Saudi Arabia, Lim, however, said that the party cannot justify Malaysia becoming a global kleptocracy.

"DAP is fortified in this stand because there can be no religion which supports corruption or a kleptocracy and Hadi is misleading PAS members and the Malaysian public into believing that Islam supports Malaysia becoming a 'global kleptocracy'."

Najib had maintained that the colossal sum was a donation from a member of the Saudi royal family and denied abusing public funds for personal gain.

Attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali, in clearing Najib of any wrongdoing, had also claimed that US$620 million of the money was returned to the donor.

Meanwhile, commenting further on Hadi's remarks, Lim "congratulated" Najib for getting Hadi to be his "chief defender" on the 1MDB scandal.

"The PAS president himself is worth more than the phalanx of overly-paid local and foreign media consultants and propagandists."

On Hadi who said that the 1MDB scandal was a consequence of Barisan Nasional’s motto of “leadership by example” over the years, Lim said this was as good as arguing that Malaysians should not object to another scandal just because there had been scandals in the past.

"On this basis, Hadi will be able to defend and justify all the abuses and corruption of power by the Najib government.

"Is this the basis on which Hadi wants PAS to defend and even save Najib and Umno?" Lim asked.

Hadi yesterday clarified his stand on 1MDB by noting that the scandal involving the state investment firm was one of the many unresolved scandals in Malaysian history.

He took a dig at PAS critic Dr Mahathir Mohamad and said that these scandals include the foreign exchange, BMF and Perwaja Steel scandals which happened during Mahathir's tenure as prime minister.- Mkini